Vietnam, Inc. Photographs and text by Philip Jones Griffiths. Collier Books, New York and Collier-Macmillan, London, 1971. 223 pp. First edition. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by Griffiths, 'For Howard**/with sincere thanks'. Clothbound in photo-illustrated dust jacket [the hb edition is thought to be limited to just 200 copies; distributed to members of Congress and . other prominent public figures]. Black-and-white reproductions.
[Laid in are 5 contemporary photo copies of documents related to the book's publication: an internal Macmillan Co. memo from editor Samuel Stewart + four letters of support for Griffiths book, addressed to Stewart, from the following: playwright Arthur Miller; Congresswoman Bella Abzug; Senator Frank Church and the prominent physician Benjamin Spock].
**From the estate of Howard Sandum, the acquisitions editor at Macmillan who handled Griffiths' book. In 1962 Sandum joined Macmillan in New York at the behest of publisher Jeremiah Kaplan, initially as an assistant editor of religious books and trade paperbacks. At Macmillan he revived the former Collier Books trade paperback division, dealing with more than 800 unfulfilled book contracts and reformulating the division's assumptions, procedures and expectations. He served simultaneously as Collier Books editor-in-chief and as a Macmillan senior acquisitions editor, pioneering closer collaboration in hardcover/trade paperback acquisitions.

The very scarce hardbound first issue of Griffiths' masterpiece (thought to number only 200), whose 1971 publication was crucial in changing public opinion toward the war in Vietnam.

"No photographer produced such finely subversive work, knowing that truth in war is always subversive."--from John Pilger's obituary, The New Statesman, March, 2008

"While critical of the way the United States was conducting the war, Mr. Griffiths also included in his book many humanizing images of American soldiers at a time when they were often being demonized back home."--from NY Times obituary

"Time Magazine called Vietnam, Inc. 'the best work of photo-reportage of war ever published", and The New Statesman wrote, 'Of all the hundreds of books about [the War,] this is the truest, the most important, the most upsetting.'"--Lens Culture

Griffiths produced one of the best photographic records of the Vietnam era, and established his reputation with this book. The images focus on the human costs of war and the destruction the war inflicted. He saw Vietnam as a "goldfish bowl where the values of American and Vietnamese can be observed, studied, and because of their contrasting nature, more easily appraised." For a comprehensive look at Vietnam, Inc. as well as interview with Jones Griffiths, visit the Musarium web site.

A bit of wear to extremities of jacket and boards; one tiny tear to rear panel of jacket (about 2 mm.); just about Fine/Fine.